community policing

Contrast of Pre-Community Policing and Current Community Policing

The start of the three eras of policing came about in 1845 with the organization of police departments in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. New York was the first city to have paid police officers. New York stockbrokers went to England and returned with a model for policing derived from the London Metropolitan Police Act of 1829 (Jackson, 2006. Pg. 14) The London Metropolitan Police Act originated from Sir Robert Peel. Peel provided the organization of police activities in a professional, non-hostile manner. Once the American society initiated this Peelian style of policing, the police officers partially followed Peel’s principles. The officers remained professional at all times, did not carry guns, and were expected to interact with the residents of the community. Now with an organization structure and a way to accomplish policing in an effective way, we now move into the Political era of policing. Political Era: The Political Era of policing began in 1840 and ended in 1930. The early American police were governed by their local government. American police departments did not have what their British counterparts had, a central authority of the crown to establish a legitimate, unifying mandate for their enterprise (Kelling & Moore, 1988, Pg. 3). Police in America received their authorization and resources from local political leaders, who often politicians. Officers were guided by the law as to what tasks to undertake and what powers to utilize. Officer’s links to the neighborhoods and local politicians was so tight that both Jordan and Fogelson refer to the early police as adjuncts to local political machines (Kelling & Moore, 1988, Pg. 3). The relationship between officer and political leader was reciprocal, political machines recruited and maintained police in office and on the beat, while the